The Green Mountain Psychiatric Care Center, a temporary eight-bed psychiatric facility in Morrisville, is now certified by the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, the Department of Mental Health said Monday.
CMS certification is a validation of the quality of care provided at the Morrisville facility, director Jeff Rothenberg said.
The Green Mountain Psychiatric Care Center will close this summer when a 25-bed state psychiatric hospital opens in Berlin.
Vermont is planning to ask CMS to allow the newly issued certification to be transferred to the Berlin facility, but it has yet to make that request, said Frank Reed, deputy commissioner of the Department of Mental Health.
The governor’s proposed FY 2015 budget assumes the Berlin hospital will have CMS certification. If CMS doesn’t approve the transfer, it will leave a $500,000 hole in the hospital’s $19.3 million budget.
The Morrisville center received accreditation in August from the Joint Commission, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that accredits hospitals and health centers.
Rothenberg, who will become the new hospital’s CEO, said, at the time that representatives of the Joint Commission appeared open to allowing the accreditation to follow the facility to Berlin.
It’s unclear how CMS would react to such a request.
In a recent interview, Rothenberg said he was hopeful CMS would approve the transfer, but that such a move would be unique.